Cincinnati is bringing back two former Reds for 2024
The Cincinnati Reds haven’t signed any players this offseason to a big league contract yet this offseason. They did, however, sign two former Reds players to minor league deals for the 2024 season this past week. Left-handed pitcher Reiver Sanmartin re-upped with the club after testing the free agent market. He’s joined by infielder Alex Blandino, who came up with the club but has spent the 2022 season playing in Triple-A with San Francisco and Seattle.
Reiver Sanmartin spent the 2023 season with the Reds, but most of that time was spent on the injured list. He made the club out of spring training and pitched in 14 games where he allowed 11 earned runs in 14.0 innings (7.07 ERA) before he wound up on the injured list on May 9th with what was reported as a stress reaction in his left elbow. Two months later he underwent Tommy John surgery. With the surgery taking place in early July, it’s possible that he could return to the mound before the end of the 2024 season, but it’s also possible that he would miss all of the 2024 season. In most situations like this, the player signs a 2-year deal, but the length of Sanmartin’s deal has not been announced.
Alex Blandino was drafted by the Reds in the 1st round back in 2014 out of Stanford. Four years later he made his big league debut and spent parts of 2018, 2019, and 2021 with the team in the big leagues. In total he played in 135 games and hit .227/.339/.291 with two home runs. He also pitched in five games, with four of them coming in the 2021 season.
After spending the 2022 season in Triple-A with two different organizations, Blandino didn’t play affiliated ball in 2023. In the spring he played for Nicaragua in the World Baseball Classic. Blandino went 2-12 with a double in his four games played.
While Blandino has famously busted out a knuckleball on the mound, he’s also thrown a 91 MPH fastball. Blandino did sign as an infielder, but it’s fun to think about him taking the mound and throwing 90 MPH fastballs and 70 MPH knuckleballs in blowouts.
